Encourage vaccinations, face coverings
A parent’s meeting was held Wednesday at Cumby ISD on the football field to share COVID updates and information pertaining to testing, vaccines, breakthrough cases and variances.
Superintendent Shelly Slaughter shared that the school is offering COVID testing on site for students and other household members including parents and grandparents.
Slaughter shared that the board had discussed mandating masks with their lawyers at the Powell Law Group and made a joint decision to not mandate masks and to continue educating students on the importance of being mindful of close proximities and hand washing. Face coverings are highly encouraged.
Pre-K through second grade students are eating breakfast in their classrooms with older students eating in the cafeteria.
Pre-K and Kindergarten students are entering the school at a different entrance than older students as well.
Quarantining students who have been in close contact with an infected students is being left up to parents this year.
Julianna Osornio, school nurse, shared that there will be a transition in the funding provided for the school to purchase COVID tests. The funds had been provided by the state and now the funds are coming from a TEA grant, and Osornio shared that she feels the tests the school uses are fairly accurate.
The UIL is mandating the need for clearance from a physician for student athletes that have been treated for COVID due to the risks of pulmonary issues.
A report from a task force formed by the National Federation of State High School, NFHS, Associations and the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine, AMSSM, shared that while the vast majority of young persons afflicted with the coronavirus have mild symptoms or remain asymptomatic, the infection can cause direct injury or inflammation to the heart and lungs. The task force was formed to provide guidance for the medical assessment of student-athletes with prior COVID-19 illness before sports participation and recommends that schools consider a supplemental questionnaire addressing medical issues specific to COVID-19.
Any positive response from the survey should trigger an evaluation by a medical provider prior to sports participation. This is not a district mandate but a UIL one to ensure student safety.
Osornio shared that cases are different than last year with students getting sick the seventh or eighth day instead of the second or third day, and the school is unable to quarantine whole classes after exposure and instead has to leave it up to parents to make the decision.
Osornio wished for families and students to practice mindfulness and honesty when it comes to infections and to please consider testing even in mild cases.
“Not just do it for ourselves, not just do it for our kids, or say ‘oh I’m healthy so it’s fine’, but maybe do for those around you who kind of expect you to,” Osornio commented. “Or that hope that you do and do it for them, more than ourselves.”
Lara Beverly, MPH and PA-C, shared that she was there to echo and support what Slaughter and Osornio said as well as giving parents links to the DSHS website where they can access more information and data on the prevention and intervention that the school could implement. Beverly shared that Hopkins County is currently a high transmission area meaning schools should follow current CDC guidelines as vigilantly as possible.
Next Claire Herman, RN, MPH, with Public Health Region 4/5 next shared data on breakthrough cases and vaccines.
“COVID knows no boundaries,” Herman stated.
The current reported school cases of over 6,000 across the region, which includes multiple counties, as of Sept. 5, has surpassed last year’s total at this time by more than half, Herman shared.
Herman shared that every time a virus passes to from person to person it changes or mutates, leading to variances.
“Viruses need hosts to reproduce and when they change for the better or grow stronger, it’s bad for us,” Herman said.
The coronavirus has mutated into four variances so far: Alpha, Beta, Delta and Gamma, with Delta being the most highly transmissible and less susceptible to vaccines.
“Vaccines give some protection, and it’s helpful to have some tools to help combat the illness,” Herman commented.
Breakthrough cases are when vaccinated persons become infected with the coronavirus, but they are less likely to have a fatal case or become hospitalized.
Not every test is genome sequenced for the delta variant. PCR or tests that are sent to outside labs are the only tests sequenced.
This means that when looking at data, it may seem that every person tested has coronavirus, but some or even a majority of them could be infected with the Delta Variant.
Herman and Beverly shared that vaccines are readily available around the county, including the FDA approved Pfizer, Moderna and the J&J vaccine.
A video of the meeting and all data shared by Herman and Beverly is available on the Cumby ISD home page.